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trumpery” (Milton III. 474-75). Of course, Milton’s narrator is evoking
the sects of priests who are identifiable by the colors of their cloaks. In
a matter of twenty lines, Milton’s narrator condemns three layers of
fragmentation: a new race of beings, the division of languages, and the
factioning of the church—and all of this fragmentation stems from acts
of physical reproduction which are separate from God.
In contrast to these moments of reproduction which are separate
from God, the birth of Eve is initially presented as a unifying moment
that stresses likeness. When viewed through Wittig’s critical lens, Milton
initially depicts Adam and Eve as genderless beings who are gendered on
account of their social relationship to one another, rather than inherently
gendered by God: Adam is both mother and husband to Eve and Eve
initially desires to live in conformity with her mirror images, meaning
both the immaculately productive earth and her personal reflection, rather
than her opposite, Adam. Upon waking after her creation, according to
her own recollection, Eve has no knowledge of gender difference and
desires to remain with her own reflection rather than Adam (Milton
IV. 460-80); she initially finds Adam “less fair, / Less winning soft, less
amiably mild / than that smooth watery image” (Milton IV. 478-80) of
herself in the mirrored pond. Furthermore, Eve is often likened to the
earth, which is highly productive by means of God’s interaction, which
doubly indicates her desire for unity, as she is literally seeing herself
reflected in the earth. Schwartz suggests that Adam’s description of Eve’s
birth “is the summation of all that God, in his goodness, has planned
for his universe” (194). I would further this claim to suggest that God’s
planned universe was initially egalitarian and unified on account of a
lack of gender distinction. As Wittig suggests, without the binary of male
gender, there is no female gender. Eve inherently seeks unification, but
with the acceptance of Adam as her master, she acknowledges difference,
resulting in divisions and leading to her separation from God, as she is
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reliant on Adam as a mediator.
Adam’s first interaction with Eve, wherein she “yields” to his seizing
(Milton V. 489) hand, initiates difference in Eden, leading to Eve’s
separation from God via Adam’s mediation; thus, Adam becomes the first
divider by means of his relational position to Eve. After Eve leaves her
reflection, God tells her that she is Adam’s “image” (Milton IV.472) and
that he is “inseparably [hers]” (Milton IV. 473). This statement is relevant
for two reasons: it demonstrates Eve’s desire for unity and shows that she
initially has a direct relationship with God. However, upon seeing Adam,
she perceives physical difference and flees, at which Adam speaks to her;
he reasons, “Part of my soul I seek thee and thee claim / my other half”
(Milton IV. 487-88). Adam demonstrates that he sees Eve as something
to be claimed, and by seizing her hand he signifies that he is superior to
her. Riggs suggests that in “the poem’s first human conversation a tension
may be felt, a kindly pressure to misinterpret the reality of a marriage of
peculiarly unequal equals” (368); indeed, Adam’s claiming of Eve, who
is defined as complete in herself, is unsettling and introduces a sense
of gender hierarchy that is discordant within the ideal space of Eden.
Following Adam’s dominant act, Eve responds with her first recognition of
gender difference, admitting that her “beauty is excelled by manly grace”
(Milton IV. 490). In doing so, she exalts Adam above herself, unlike God
who depicted them as equals, leading to gendering, as Eve begins to see
herself only in contrast to Adam, her new master. Of this event, Schwartz
suggests that Eve’s “desire for sameness gives way—at first unstably—to a
desire for sameness in difference, which then leads to motherhood, which
is ambiguously marked by an experience of both desire and submission”
(204), supporting my argument that with difference comes submission,
reproduction, and, I would add, separation from God by reliance on
mediation. By recognizing Adam as her new master, she loses her direct
relationship with God and becomes reliant on Adam’s mediation.
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